Homeward bound

Saturday 23rd September. Very early start as the SpoT is heading back to Devonport at 9.30am. Off the boat by 6.20am. Meeting Patrick and Heidi for breakfast, we’re a bit earlier than we all expected. Their fave brekkie spot was only opening as we walked to their place from where we parked at the station.

Back to their’s for the morning. So tired. Bee swarm in a neighbour’s yard. Want to be on the road for Albury by midday, so before we know it, it’s time to go.

Sun 24^th. Albury to Jugiong. Air Bnb

Mon 25^th. Jugiong to home. Air Bnb.

back to Devonport

Friday 22nd September. Booked on the Spirit of Tasmania tonight. Packed up and left Stanley, stopping off at The Maker’s Workshop at Burnie.  Had to stop in at Penguin, expected more penguins, had heard stories about all the penguin things, but not as much as expected. Had a scallop pie at the bakery, not very nice. 

Drove along the coast for a bit. Don River Railway, took a ride along the Don River for 15 minutes or so, and back. Had a look at all their rolling stock. Not bad. Headed in to Devonport, Spirit is docked. Find a bottle shop that has Ghost Rock Reisling. Drive out to Mersey Bluff, check out the lighthouse, have a drink at the Formby Hotel, across the Mersey River from the Spirit. Drive over to East Devonport, see where we have to be later for the ferry, drive along the coast and sit and watch the sea till it’s time to go to the ferry. We don't really have time to visit Ghost Rock Winery, so we'll save that for next time too.

Boarded earlier than expected, dinner on board and then to bed. Extremely calm crossing and wake up in Melbourne.

Stanley and The Nut. And more seafood.

Thursday 21st September. Weather overcast but no rain. Time to climb the Nut. Tough going. Takes 45 mins to walk around at the top, but I’m sure we took longer. Wallabies live up there! We hopped on the chairlift to come back down. The lady seemed surprised that we needed to buy a ticket to get down. 'Did you walk up?' she said. 

Beer at the pub after, because we earned it, checked out their menu, and decide to have seafood pizza at Hursey’s for lunch and book in again for dinner. 

Drive around Stanley, Dovecote Rd up to the HA Lane Memorial Lookout, funny little raised platform, good view, then Old Cable Station, just accommodation now. Highfields Historic Site, didn’t go in, running out of time. More photos along Godfrey’s Beach, interesting rock shelf when the tide is out, almost tessellated but not quite, covered in short green weed. Give it another hundred years or so.

Back to Hursey’s for dinner. Mains only tonight, Cape Grim steak and a full serve of Tassie scallops cooked in garlic butter. Went halves in both. Very good. Ghost Rock Sauv Blanc tonight, preferred the Pinot Gris. I don't care what part of Tassie we come to next time, we're coming back here too!

We had laughed with Andrew and Mike at Hursey's that they should open for breakfast so we could have seafood three meals a day. They said NO! (strangely) but we figured it out without them. We had bought some oyster pate on Bruny, so we ate it on toast for breakfast today. Et voila! 3 seafood meals in one day!

Stanley and the penguins.

Wed 20^th. Time to head across to Stanley. We stopped at the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm for lunch because it was so good the first time. On Cindy’s recommendation, I had a raspberry smoothie this time with my red lentil patties and roasted vegetable tabouli and Trevor had Chat Potatoes with bacon and onion. Both the small size serves, but they were still quite big. Good value. 

Back in the car and it was time to keep watch for the turnoff to Railton, home of the topiary, a bit over-hyped in the guide books, there were not as many topiaries as I expected, some quite clever  and some looking a bit untended. Maybe it’s the lack of rain?? From there we headed across to Sheffield, the town of murals. More narrow roads, I won’t be sorry to see the last of them!  We parked at one end of town and walked along one side of the road and then back down the other side. It’s a nice place and we probably could have spent more time there. Trevor spotted a  Tassie scenery DVD for sale in a shop window so we went in and found an interesting mix of goods for sale. Lots of clothes, so I finally bought the fleecy zip-up top I’d been looking for all trip. 

Back on the main road I saw a sign for Table Cape lighthouse, so, of course, we diverted. There’s usually always a good view from lighthouses. This one was further off the main road than expected so blew out our travel time a bit, but it was interesting, right next to the big tulip farm, which would be spectacular when the tulips are blossoming. We arrived in Stanley around 4.30, later than planned but the roads are a bit skinnier up here and the logging trucks are stressing me out! 

Our home for the next 2 nights is Abbey’s on the Terrace, located on Alexander Terrace, halfway between Moby Dick’s and Hursey’s Seafood Restaurant. House is old school and very cute, nestled under The Nut, with almost westerly views across Sawyer Bay towards Tatlows Beach and it has the best heater!! Took a short walk down the road to Hursey’s to book a table for dinner. You can’t miss the place, it’s got a massive red rock lobster out the front! By the time I walked back it was nearly time to go for dinner, but it was good to have a walk. 

Dinner was fresh Tassie scallops pan fried in garlic butter and baby abalone for entrée, never had abalone before, so it was a good chance to try it. And we were surprised to see how little they were. When they say ‘baby’, they mean ‘baby’! Half a crayfish cooked with garlic butter for me and seafood chowder for Trevor. Chowder not as good as the Drunken Admiral in Hobart though. Ghost Rock is a winery near Devonport and I hope to go there before we leave, and Hursey’s have some of their range on the wine list. Happy days! Ghost Rock Reisling is on the specials board, but they’re sold out, so we cheekily ask if we can have the Pinot Gris for the same price. Mike, our waiter agrees so we get a bottle and it’s very nice. We’ll definitely have to take some home with us! Andrew, the other waiter, turns out to be a Hursey and his mum is out in the kitchen washing dishes! The whole experience here was amazingly good, I think we’ll have to eat here again! 

I’d read that there was a place in Stanley that you could go and watch the penguins come ashore at night and waddle back to their nests, so after our amazing dinner, we went penguin spotting. We ducked back home and donned all our warmest clothes, preparing for the night cold. At least it wasn’t raining! We saw quite a few penguins, funny little things they are!! It was all very exciting, and apart from all the fantastic food and spending time with family and friends, it was the highlight of the trip.

Tamar Valley wine tour

Tuesday 19th September. Wine tour with Valleybrook Wine on Wheels Tours. Great day. Guided by Jeremy in a Hyundai I-Max. Tamar Ridge Wines, owned by Brown Brothers, then Moores Hill, really nice, family owned, Iron Pot Bay Vineyard, owner JulieAnne, lunch here, chef Sam is a genius, lunch was amazing! Goaty Hill Wines, not keen on the wine, no-one bought any. Wines for Joanie, nobody home…… owner’s child got injured so unexpectedly closed for the day. Swinging Gate Vineyard and Cellar Door last wine stop, for tasting and cheese plate. Doug is the owner, very down-to earth, turned up in a holey sweat shirt and daggy jeans, caught him off guard maybe, he saw us drive past and thought he had 45 mins. Bought lots of wine, had a great day with another couple from Mosman in Sydney. Small world. Peter and Claudia. 

Jeremy took us to the Batman Bridge, apparently a little bit famous and quite impressive. I didn't even realise the significance till months later when I looked at the map to see where we'd been! I did have a good day! And when we got back, I went to Dan Murphy's!

Big day, short summary. 

Off to Launceston

Monday 18th September. Hobart to Launceston. There were a few stops on the way back to Launceston that were in the plans, but they got thrown out for a few reasons but mainly because I just wanted to get to Launceston and park the car! These roads are still freaking me out! 

First stop Cataract Gorge, weather drizzly rain and cold. Paid parking and a 2 for 1 chairlift ticket. Chairlift across, very high and surprisingly slow. I realise I'm not that keen on heights! Our accommodation is at Two Up on York, a lovely two storey terrace house, just across the road from Dan Murphy's. This could be a problem!! The host is very thorough and handover takes half an hour! We were meant to be at Jane's around 4pm and we are late. We have a cuppa and a chat with Jane and we're still there when Nick gets in from work. They tell us about their favourite local Chinese place, so we get takeaway on the way home and settle in for the night.There's actually so much that we won't need to forage for dinner tomorrow!

Markets and wine.

Sunday 17th September. With the sun shining brightly, we make our way to the Sorell markets in the morning, having the sights we saw on the way into Hobart explained such as Midway Point and the man-made causeways for the Tasman Hwy to travel over. Their building cut the travel time to the Tasman Peninsula dramatically when the original Sorell Causeway was built by convicts in 1872. As hoped, there was cutlery a-plenty at the markets and I picked up several bundles, some jam spoons and a couple more serving spoons. Then it’s off to Richmond.

Hobart is very close to the Coal Valley wine region, you pretty much have to drive through it to get anywhere!! Lol. Frogmore Creek Winery is a fine example. Puddle Duck Winery is another winery in the valley, we drive past Frogmore Creek to get to it and I’m sure I felt the car pulling to the right as we drove past the driveway! At Puddleduck, they don’t have a café or restaurant, instead you are encouraged to BYO food and purchase your drinks, alcoholic or not, from them. Seems like a fair deal. We did a wine tasting but weren’t that keen on any of the wines we had, but surprisingly, verjuice was part of the tasting. Who drinks verjuice??  It wasn’t your typical verjuice, it was very drinkable and in summer the employees like it in a tumbler with ice, soda and fresh mint. I have to try that, so I buy a bottle. So does Cindy. I’m not a big chardonnay fan, but the one here isn’t too bad.  

When we arrive in Richmond, we park near the famous Richmond Bridge, the oldest bridge in Australia, on the main road to Sorell and the Tasman Peninsula before the Sorell Causeway was built. Cars can still cross the bridge but I don’t think heavy vehicles are allowed. It’s a lovely subject for photos and there are families enjoying picnics on the riverbanks. We could be lazy and drive up into town, but it’s not far and we’re all happy to take advantage of the sunshine and walk. We wander around town, checking out the old buildings and imagining life back in colonial times. There’s even a studio where you can dress up in colonial style clothes and have your photo taken. We have lunch at the Richmond Arms, more Tassie scallops of course, because it’s only scallop season once a year!  

Cindy told me not to buy any woodcrafts at the Salamanca Markets, she was certain that I’d find cheaper and better here in Richmond. There’s one particular woodcraft shop so we all head in and take a look. There’s some cheese knives with decent length handles, so I pick through them and choose one, giving it to the shop keeper to hold for me while I look around some more.  Bought a timber cheese/cutting board and cheese knife. Valhalla ice cream after.